Case Number 23819

THE FRONT LINE (BLU-RAY)

The Charge

The last battle of the Korean War.

Opening Statement

The story a war movie is inherently slanted toward is the viewpoint of the
people telling it. There are cases, like Letters from Iwo Jima, that
attempt to tell another's perspective, but that the exception and it is filtered
through the teller's brains nonetheless. It can be eye-opening, then, to watch
foreign war films, just to get their take on events that we already have notions
about. This is especially true in the case of The Front Line, which tells
of the final moments of the Korean War, likely the least discussed war (at least
that America had involvement in) of the 20th Century, from the South Korean
perspective.

Facts of the Case

Early in the war between North and South Korea, Kang Eun-pyo (Ha-kyun Shin,
Thirst) and Kim Soo-hyeok (Soo Go, Into the White Night) were
close compatriots, but when they were separated, Eun-Pyo took Soo-heyok for
dead. Much time passes and Eun-pyo is called to investigate evidence of friendly
fire death during operations to wrest a hill from the North. When he arrives, he
finds Soo-hyeok there as commander, addicted to morphine, and fostering a
suspicious relationship with the people they're supposed to be fighting. As a
cease fire nears, aggression increases, though, and they have to put their
differences to rest and fight at the other's side so they all can go home.

The Evidence

War is never pretty, but The Front Line does one of the better jobs
I've seen at displaying the ugliness. It isn't as outwardly violent as many
other recent war films (though it's violent enough), but director Hun Jang
(Secret Reunion) doesn't shy away from showing the disturbing aftermath
of the battles. Heroism is a highly relative thing in what, to the Koreans, was
as much a civil war as it was a fight about Communism, for or against. Jang
certainly includes the influences of American and Chinese forces on the
conflict, but they are presented in more or less subtle ways in favor of the
effect the war had on the individuals fighting in the trenches.

These relationships are not just between fighting brothers, but amongst the
two sides of the conflict, as well. In one of the more interesting dramatic
points of the movie, we find out that, because the hill changed hands so often
and the soldiers didn't want to lug everything out of the bunker every time they
lost it, they built a little hole under a mat as a stash place for chocolate,
matches, and other small things. After the other side found it, they wound up
filling taking the items, but filling the hole with other things, including
letters to family back home. There is a kind of camaraderie built between the
two sides that exists even while they're shooting to kill at one another. I
don't know if any of this really happened, but in the craziness of battle, I can
totally see it and the way Jang presents it is compelling and affecting.

Its tone and the realism of the battle scenes will inevitably draw
comparisons to Band of Brothers, which is probably valid. The shooting
and drab color scheme look similar, and fans of the mini-series will instantly
find it familiar, but there's considerably less heroic talk and a lot more
honest human fear at play. There's less dramatic tension written into the plot,
but the film is basically two ridiculously bloody battles, how much more drama
could one want? Jung makes it work really well, both in the way he constructed
the film and in the way the actors are presented. They aren't all the faceless,
hard to identify kids that often appear in even the best American war films;
instead, Jung gives them personalities, hopes, and fears that go deeper than the
similarities of their uniforms.

The very end of the film, unfortunately, brings the story down a little.
Jung might go a little too far with the characters, bringing some of them to the
level of heavy melodrama, especially in one of the very final scenes. Moreover,
there are an inordinate number of false finishes to the movie, many places where
it could have reasonably ended, making an already long movie drag more than it
should. It doesn't bring it down even close to far enough for me to think poorly
on the movie, but those issues still exist.

Well Go USA delivers a technically superb Blu-ray for The Front Line.
The 1.85:1/1080p high definition transfer is absolutely excellent from top to
bottom. Shot on the Red One camera, the detail is impressively crisp with great
clarity and nearly perfect colors. It's hard to see how the film could look
better. The sound, too, is impressive, with fantastic surround effects in the
5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio mix. Gunshots, especially during the sniper scenes, are
placed in appropriately disorienting places in the soundscape and the dialog is
never hard to hear, even during the heat of battle. Unfortunately, the only
extras are a three minute making-of featurette that shows nothing and a
collection of film highlights, which I guess are valuable for people who want to
talk about what happened in the film without actually watching the thing. Given
the historical nature of the film, some background on the reality of the battle
would have been nice, as would any number of things not included here. The film
looks and sounds great, though, so disappointing extras should not dissuade you
from this release.

Closing Statement

The Front Line may get a little bit melodramatic by the end, but it's
a fantastic film and a valuable look at a side of the Korean War that we don't
often get to see. It's an excellent, if imperfect, film with a gorgeous Blu-ray
that fans of Korean cinema and war film fans in general will certainly want to
watch.